Facts about Small Business
There is a close relationship between the economy and small businesses. Small businesses make up more than 99.7% of all employers, account for 39 percent of the country's gross national product, create two out of every three new jobs, and produce two and one half times as many innovations per employee as do large firms.
What is a Small Business?
The Small Business Act states that a small business concern is "one that is independently owned and operated and which is not dominant in its field of operation." The law also states that in determining what constitutes a small business, the definition will vary from industry to industry to reflect industry differences accurately.
Small Business Size Regulations are contained in Title 13 of the Code of Federal Regulations, part 121 (13 CFR §121).
The Small Business Administration (SBA) has also established a table of size standards, matched to North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) industries.
For Federal government procurements, you must meet the small business size standard that the procuring agency's contracting officer specifies for the contract. That may or may not be your principal activity. However, so long as you meet the size standard for that procurement, you can qualify as small.
The SBA Office of Government Contracting makes formal "size determinations" on whether a business qualifies as an eligible small business for SBA programs.
What is a Small Business Set-Aside?
A "set-aside for small business" is the reserving of an acquisition exclusively for participation by small business concerns. For a procurement to be totally set-aside, a contracting officer must have reasonable expectations that offers will be obtained from at least two responsible small businesses and awards will be made at reasonable or fair market prices. For more information on small business set-asides, go to https://www.acquisition.gov/far.
For small business set-asides, other than for construction or services, any small business concern proposing to furnish a product that it did not itself manufacture must furnish the product of a small business manufacturer unless the SBA has granted either a waiver or exception to the nonmanufacturer rule.